Thursday, January 4, 1900
WEATHER NOTES
We can generally count on winter weather for Christmas in West Virginia. This year, it set in on the 23rd of December and since then we have had cold, dry, enjoyable winter weather. Up to that time, the fall weather was almost perfect. It was a season of frosts and clear blue skies, with little rainfall. A gentleman who has lived in the west said that it was typical Montana weather. That ev-ery year that section experiences weeks of such sun- shiny days and cold nights. It has been a long time since West Virginia had such a fall season.
There is more ice in the county than ever we remember seeing. Forty or fifty years since, there came a winter when the Greenbrier froze so solidly that it was used as a highway. Owing to the lowness of its tide, the river is frozen so that it would be good sleighing on the ice…
We have not had a flood since last spring. When the railroad men came to Marlinton in August, they hauled some logs in the bed of Knapps creek, arranging them transversely for footmen to cross upon. Since then, there has not been a flood to move them. On many farms of this county, water for stock was been very scarce, especially since the freezes came, drying up many of the smaller streams.
ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING
Last Thursday evening, Sherman Curry, of Frost, was accidentally shot by C. C. Sharp with a breech-loader shotgun and No. 6 shot. They were out rabbit hunting about a quarter of a mile from Curry’s home. Curry was walking about twenty feet in front when the gun went off, shooting him through the left side not entering the abdominal cavity. Medical aid was rendered at once by Dr. Lockridge, and he is improving rapidly.
LOCAL MENTION
Died – William Lee Rodgers, infant son of George W. and Susan F. Rodgers, December 9, 1899, near Buckeye.
Ben Truss and Lulu Tibbs, daughter of Howard Tibbs, of Brownsburg, were united in matrimony last Wednesday.
Lee Simms’ house on Beaver Creek, near Hunters-ville, was burned one night last week. He succeeded in saving a portion of his furniture. The fire was caused by a live coal which was in some ashes which had been taken from the stove and left near the house.
A party of young people from Buckeye came up the river as far as Marlinton on skates and returned Monday. Those composing the party were Misses Anna Silva, Lena Duncan, Mrytle Silva, Nora Overholt, Winnie Buckley, John B. Buckley, Harper Adkison, Lete Young, Charles Young, Park McNeill, Jay Buckley, Jot Buckley, D. P. Barnes, George Lightner and Elmer Duncan.
The people of Edray are enjoying the sleighing as well as they can, notwithstanding the cold and stormy weather we are having. The thermometer was ten degrees below zero Sunday morning. According to Ira R. Hicks, we may look for colder weather still this week.
THE END OF THE CENTURY
Next to the Sampson-Schley controversy in point of merit, comes the discussion over the true end of the century. It would be a sad thing if we were compelled to cut the 19th century out of the only year in which the figure 19 figures. The century begins with the first day of the first year, 1801 and ends with the last day of the hundredth year, 1900. But what doth it profit a man to gain the argument if he lose his own temper. If the century ended last Sunday, there must have been a year 0.
Suppose that French Scientist had discovered his elixir of life earlier and had squirted it into the veins of a child who was born on the first day of the first month of the year 1. On January 1, 1900, he would have been 1899-years-old being in his 1900 year.
When we write January 1, 1900, we do not mean that the Christian era is 1900 years old, but that it is 1899 years and one day old…
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In writing the new date, a singular sensation is experienced. It seems strange to cease 18 and substitute 19 for the next hundred years. Before the time comes to displace 19 and write 20, it is strange to think that few or none of the living will be here. These lines so aptly come to mind that we repeat them as fitly spoken and appropriate:
“We all within our graves shall sleep
A hundred years to come.
No living soul for us will weep
A hundred years to come.
But other men our land will till
And other men, our streets will fill,
And other birds will sing as gay,
As bright the sunshine as today,
A hundred years to come.
